The Blank Warrant

An ATF agent applied for a warrant to search a Montana ranch, submitting a detailed affidavit describing automatic weapons, grenades, rocket launchers, and related purchase records he believed were hidden there. A magistrate reviewed that application and signed a warrant. But the warrant the agent actually filled out did not list any of those items in the space calling for a description of the property to be seized; instead it described the residence itself, a two-story house, and never incorporated the application by reference. The next day the agent led federal and local officers to the ranch. The homeowner was away; his wife and children were present. No illegal weapons or explosives turned up, and nothing was seized. The agent left the wife a copy of the warrant but not the application, so the paper she held named no items at all; only after the family's attorney asked did he fax over the missing page. Left open: whether a search can stand when the warrant itself never describes what may be seized, so long as an application that did was reviewed by a judge beforehand.